Monthly Archives: October 2022

Emerging Technologies Present New Challenges and Opportunities for Air Traffic Management

Panelists at NBAA-BACE discuss the challenges for air traffic management with new types of aircraft and advanced technologies. (Photo: Jessica Reed)

As innovative aircraft and novel technologies are introduced, it presents both challenges and opportunities for regulators and OEMs to reexamine air traffic control. Advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles include electric air taxis, hybrid concepts, autonomous drones, and everything in between. Panelists at the recent NBAA-BACE discussed some of the most urgent considerations for integrating these vehicles into the airspace. 

The U.S. offers a uniquely complex airspace, said Tim Arel, Chief Operating Officer at the FAA, “because we’ve been so successful at developing aviation throughout the country.” He noted that new entrants to the industry present a challenge because they operate differently, they travel at different speeds, and they look quite different than today’s in-service airplanes and helicopters. 

To integrate AAM aircraft into the airspace safely, collaboration is necessary, Arel said. “We have to have a common understanding of the airspace we’re working in, what we expect from different industries, what our capabilities are, and the minimum level of service that we provide,” he explained. 

“It’s not just the regulator or the operator of the airspace saying you can or can’t. It’s the innovators saying, ‘We have a different way of complying,’ it’s finding alternative means of compliance. That collaborative way forward is how you do it.”

John Langford, CEO of Electra.aero, compared this new industry to the introduction of drones over the past 15 years, saying that it’s critical to keep in mind the lessons learned to avoid making the same mistakes with eVTOLs and autonomous technologies. “We haven’t made as much progress as we probably should have,” he remarked, “when the commercial drone revolution really kicked off back in December 2013.”

The CEO of Jaunt Air Mobility, Martin Peryea, emphasized during the discussion that the drone space is quite different from AAM aircraft, particularly in regards to the missions these vehicles are designed to perform. He noted that a lot of eVTOL aircraft are still early in the development phase. “There’s actually time to develop air traffic management systems for the future,” he said.

“These aircraft will go through a typical development certification program, and they will be able to operate under existing part 135 rules, very similar to rotorcraft today,” Peryea explained. “You can ramp up production—even if you have multiple companies building these eVTOL aircraft, it will be some time before it becomes an issue with air traffic management. By then, the FAA will have systems in place.”

He mentioned that the first generation of eVTOL aircraft will likely be piloted and rely on traditional systems. When upgrading battery systems for the second generation of eVTOL vehicles, the avionics systems and technologies like sense-and-avoid will also be updated and integrated into the aircraft.

“All of these aircraft are going to be fly-by-wire, which requires advanced systems to ensure safety of the aircraft itself,” Peryea stated. “They’ll really be no different than getting on a commercial airliner today. With automation, the systems will be very similar.”

Lisa Stark moderated the “Airspace for Everyone: How Emerging Technologies Will Transform Air Traffic” panel, featuring Tim Arel of the FAA, Col. Nathan Diller of the Air Force, Stéphane Fymat from Honeywell, Dr. Parimal “P.K.” Kopardekar of NASA, Dr. John Langford from Electra.aero, and Martin Peryea from Jaunt Air Mobility. (Photo: Jessica Reed)

Stéphane Fymat, Vice President and General Manager of Urban Air Mobility and Unmanned Aerial Systems at Honeywell, drew attention to the distinction between AAM and drones. “Most AAM aircraft are going to start with pilots on board for the foreseeable future,” he said. “At the same time, [they] hope to be without a pilot on board in the near future. A lot of cargo versions of these vehicles may even be without a pilot on board on day one.”

For integrating aircraft without pilots on board, there are certainly lessons to be learned from the way that small drones have been integrated into the airspace. However, Fymat remarked, it’s important to keep these two categories separate and to understand AAM as a unique category in order to make progress.

He also commented that the transition from today’s manned aircraft to fully autonomous aircraft will take time. One challenge is giving AAM vehicles “the ability to make decisions in unknown situations that it hasn’t seen before,” he said. There are a lot of things that need to happen on the path to enabling full autonomy. 

Fymat explained, “We need to add a few capabilities, but [we will] build on the systems we have today.”

Dr. Parimal “P.K.” Kopardekar, Director of the NASA Aeronautics Research Institute, noted that over the last 10 years, progress with air traffic management for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has been slow but steady. “It’s going in the right direction,” he said. He believes that there is a significant amount of testing and research that needs to be done because of the paradigm shift “from management by clearance to management by exception.”

“The current air traffic control system is very safe, very effective, but you cannot overload it,” Dr. Kopardekar remarked. With UAS, “we had to figure out how to basically keep in charge of regulatory aspects and operational constraints, but not overload [the system].”

Col. Nathan P. Diller of the U.S. Air Force and Director at AFWERX shared that the Air Force has the opportunity to experiment with new types of aircraft in a defined airspace. “We can do experimentation with small companies and potentially do early deployment. Eventually, we can reduce some of the financial risk by having use cases in a controlled environment.”

Essentially, he said, the USAF is “collaborating with the FAA and NASA to be able to see what that future looks like on a small scale and what is useful for national security, which then feeds broader use cases.” He describes the industry as a dual-use space, where more than 80% of today’s research and development is happening in the commercial space. The USAF can take advantage of that R&D without using taxpayer dollars to advance new technologies and aircraft systems.

The post Emerging Technologies Present New Challenges and Opportunities for Air Traffic Management appeared first on Avionics International.

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SAUDIA Plans to Buy 100 Lilium Jets for eVTOL Operations in Saudi Arabia

Lilium signed an MoU with SAUDIA, the national flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, to collaborate in establishing an eVTOL network across Saudi Arabia. The airline also plans to purchase and operate 100 Lilium Jets. (Photo: Lilium)

The airline Saudia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Lilium, an electric air taxi developer, to develop a network of electric vertical take-off and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft operations across Saudi Arabia. The MoU includes plans for Saudia to purchase 100 eVTOL aircraft. The announcement shared this week states that this agreement would make Saudia the first airline in the Middle East/North Africa region to purchase Lilium’s eVTOLs. 

Saudia plans to develop and operate a network of eVTOL aircraft following the purchase of 100 vehicles from Lilium. The airline’s operations would include “new electric point-to-point connections as well as seamless feeder connections to Saudia’s hubs for business class guests,” according to the announcement.

For Lilium, this agreement could offer support throughout the regulatory approval processes in Saudi Arabia that are necessary for certifying the eVTOL. “This partnership with Saudia, our first in the Middle East, is an exciting development,” remarked Alexander Asseily, Lilium’s Vice Chairman, regarding the MoU. “We look forward to working with Saudia to deploy an eVTOL network across Saudi Arabia.”

Saudia’s CEO, Captain Ibrahim S. Koshy, emphasized the airline’s commitment to sustainability and the importance of the MoU signed with Lilium. “Saudia intends to meet a growing demand for regional air mobility and offer our valued Guests a superior on-board experience. The potential for such an airborne transit network is limitless,” Koshy said in the announcement.

The Lilium team aims to certify the eVTOL aircraft with the FAA and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). One of the company’s upcoming goals on the path to certification is to complete all four of its Design Organization Approval (DOA) audits with EASA before July 2023. It plans to launch its aircraft in 2025 following certification.

Lilium’s Phoenix 2 technology demonstrator recently performed a full transition from hover to wing-borne flight. The company shared details about the achievement in its second-quarter letter to shareholders, published in late September. This test flight was conducted at Lilium’s ATLAS (Air Traffic Laboratory for Advanced Unmanned Systems) Flight Test Center in Villacarrillo, Spain.

As revealed in a June announcement, the eVTOL developer has chosen L3Harris to provide extra light data recorders for the Lilium Jet. L3Harris expects to launch the production version of its xLDR next year. 

This year, Lilium also announced the selection of Astronics Corporation, an aerospace supplier, to develop and manufacture the electrical power distribution system for its eVTOL. 

The post SAUDIA Plans to Buy 100 Lilium Jets for eVTOL Operations in Saudi Arabia appeared first on Avionics International.

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OPINION: Advanced Air Mobility in Commercial Aviation May be in Start-Up Mode Now, But The Future Awaits

(Photo: AirAsia)

The support challenges – from design through to production, operation and maintenance – that await organizations looking to enter or further entrench themselves in a high-growth industry.

In 2021, Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Advanced Air Vehicles (AAVs) attracted $7 billion in new investment, a record year—more than doubling the total disclosed investments made over the previous decade. There is no doubt that the AAM industry is at a pivotal point across commercial aviation.

But Rob Mather, Vice President, Aerospace and Defense Industries, IFS, explains that most AAM organizations have a “start-up” mentality and it’s those organizations that look beyond initial design and prototyping, and set up a strategy for widescale commercialization and ongoing operations that stand to gain the most. That includes the software they use to manage every step of each AAV lifecycle.

The industry is chock full of acronyms in relation to Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) & the Advanced Air Vehicles (AAVs).

So, we’ll begin picking through the “acronym salad” by defining industry terms within the commercial aviation ecosystem:

• There are a plethora of high-tech start-ups making rapid progress with all types of Advanced Air Vehicles (AAVs) with commercial and civilian applications
• The phenomenon of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) – think flying taxis for short passenger trips or cargo deliveries – is being made possible with Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, through to fully Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) much larger than your typical drone, that will be used for last-mile and middle-mile cargo delivery
• But AAV does not just relate to air-taxis or unmanned aircraft, it also applies to aircraft with new forms of propulsion—such as Hybrid Electric Aircraft (HEA) and Fully Electric Aircraft (FEA) to reflect electrification of more traditional airframes or new hybrid or all-electric aircraft
• Take all of those vehicles and all the infrastructure and policy required to support them together and you get Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).

AAV Certifications are on the horizon both sides of the Atlantic

Here, we explore the latest technology at the forefront of the future of air travel:

Advanced Air Vehicles are not a far-off future technology from the Jetsons; they are coming sooner than you might think—and airworthiness certificates are just around the corner. Consider this 2021 assessment from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA): “Urban Air Mobility is expected to become a reality in Europe within 3-5 years. New technologies such as electric propulsion and enhanced battery capacity, applied to vertical take-off and landing systems, make this possible. The first commercial operations are expected to be the delivery of goods by drones and the transport of passengers, initially with a pilot on board. Later remote piloting or even autonomous services could follow. Several pilot projects are under way and some European manufacturers have already applied for certification, including for piloted vehicles for passenger transport. EASA is working with them on the airworthiness of the vehicles.”

In North America the FAA is already focusing on the infrastructure to support AAM. This year, it released interim guidance, via Engineering Brief, to support the design and operation of facilities that Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft will use for initial operations. It states: “The FAA is including AAM and UAM in our planning efforts, and our work is organized around five areas of activity—aircraft, airspace, operations, infrastructure, and community.”

One of the leading AAM players, Joby Aviation recently received a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate from the FAA, ahead of schedule, allowing Joby to begin on-demand commercial air taxi operations. The Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate is one of three FAA approvals required for Joby to operate its revolutionary eVTOL aircraft as an air taxi service in cities and communities across the United States.

The Prime Targets for AAM – Where Environmental Benefits are Highest

McKinsey estimates short-haul flights account for more than 17% of total airline CO² emissions, making them an important target for decarbonization efforts. Replacing these traditionally-powered flights with lower carbon technologies – such as green propulsion – could really contribute to lowering aviation emissions—and that’s before factoring in replacing ground transportation emissions for similar journeys.

With today’s emerging technologies, AAM has the highest potential to disrupt travel of distances up to 1000 miles, distances currently served by local ground vehicles and high numbers of short-haul aircraft flights. Ground transportation converting to air travel will represent a brand-new market but for airlines, the impact is most felt with electrification and hybrid usage in short and regional distances. The potential to revolutionize short and medium travel is imminent but it will be a longer path for AAM to impact long-haul and trans-oceanic flights.

Rising fuel prices are driving further airline interest in AAM. In fact, Aviation Week reports that one-third of the current orders for AAVs have been placed by airlines.

At IFS we currently have two customers excelling in the electric propulsion market. Cape Air will become one of the world’s first carriers to go electric in the sky. The company is working closely to develop and operate the Eviation Alice electric aircraft—a nine-seat fully electric plane that has been designed from the ground-up to be the perfect short commute aircraft.

On the OEM side, Rolls-Royce, beside all its work on the Trent engine family running on sustainable aviation fuels, is targeting electrification too. In late 2021 the Rolls-Royce, “Spirit of Aviation”, supported by partner Electroflight, set three new world records for an all-electric aircraft.

Positive Societal Implications – We’re Already Seeing a Government Groundswell

There is huge societal benefit to be gained by making regional transport more accessible for human and goods transportation. A recent report by the UK Government revealed that two in three people thought that improved transport links would have a positive impact on people’s ability to access job opportunities. Not only can AAM positively impact commuting opportunities, but from a cargo perspective it could provide better linkage to rural communities by delivering vital supplies and services to under-served areas.

In the U.S., AAM Legislation has also just gained House approval. A bill that gained House passage in June will provide $25 million in grant funds to support AAM in FYs 2022 and 2023. The Advanced Aviation Infrastructure Modernization Act (AAIM Act), H.R. 6270, authorizes funding to plan and then build new AAM infrastructure by using existing heliports and airports, establishing new “vertiports,” and associated charging infrastructure. But a crucial aim of the legislation is the need to engage communities in the planning process and bring new technologies to a diverse set of communities, while creating hundreds of thousands of new green jobs.

We’re Just at the Start-up Stage – but AAVs are Assets to be Supported Through-Life

There is very much a “Silicon Valley mindset” in the AAM movement right now. The AAV landscape is currently dominated by disruptive start-ups or spin-offs and joint-ventures between leading aviation players—with certification targets ranging from 2022 through to 2028.

Despite this varied landscape, each AAM organization will face the same core challenges—taking a next-generation asset from design and proof-of-concept, through to prototyping, widescale operations and ongoing maintenance. Unlike manufacturing of traditional aircraft, many organizations involved in producing AAVs are looking to become a “one-stop” shop for their assets, well beyond initial sale. From design, manufacturing, and initial delivery, right through to supporting the spares, parts management and maintenance of that AAV asset throughout its lifecycle. Many, like Joby are even looking to act as the operator of their aircraft, meaning that they will also be responsible for the continuing airworthiness of each aircraft.

Through-life Support Begins with the Right Software

The market leaders in AAM will make software a central part of their evolutionary growth to assert their authority in a maturing marketplace. An asset of tomorrow requires software support that can support every step of its journey. The ability to efficiently manage a complex asset through its entire lifecycle requires an underlying data thread—to build, operate, maintain, and support that asset.

With such quick expansion anticipated, it is essential for AAV organizations to have a 360-degree view of operational processes to make informed, data-driven business decisions. This requires supporting software to aggregate, analyze and action this data, as well as to evolve in lockstep with company growth strategy—from initial design and engineering through to manufacturing and maintenance.

This will put the focus on breadth of functionality for supporting software too, with relevant modules needing to be deployed in line with business requirements. This could span functionalities such as supply chain procurement, HR, payroll, finance, project management in the design and production phases, moving to manufacturing execution systems, regulatory compliance frameworks, export control in the manufacturing phase, and MRO, asset management and workforce management for ongoing maintenance and support.

There’s more to AAM than the AAV – there’s the bigger picture to take into account

While the AAM industry is still in its infancy, there is a once in a lifetime opportunity to grab market share. Moving from manufacturing an AAV to operating an air taxi business opens up a whole new set of business processes that will need support, including maintenance planning execution, configuration management and more.

AAV manufacturers shouldn’t choose systems that are only good for them today, but will grind to a halt when they reach their maximum capability—meaning the manufacturer must then find and install software that can enable them to take their business to the next level.

Instead, they need a solution that will grow as they do, this means putting a system in place from the very start that can support an AAV company as it shifts from prototype, through to operation and commercialization.

The post OPINION: Advanced Air Mobility in Commercial Aviation May be in Start-Up Mode Now, But The Future Awaits appeared first on Avionics International.

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Panelists at NBAA Discuss Certification and Infrastructure for Advanced Air Mobility

The 2022 NBAA convention featured a panel discussion on certification and infrastructure requirements for advanced air mobility aircraft. (Photo: Jessica Reed)

ORLANDO, Fla. — At the 2022 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) last week, representatives from the FAA, Eviation, Textron, Overair, and Archer Aviation discussed the most pressing challenges for the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry. The “Pathway to Liftoff” panel featured discussions on battery technology, public acceptance, airspace integration, and infrastructure for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) operations.

“The team is working very hard in regards to being prepared for these new entrants,” stated Shannetta Griffin, FAA Associate Administrator for Airports. She mentioned that the FAA has developed a new division for emerging entrants in the AAM industry. The division works across the FAA gathering information. 

Monitoring and researching this space as it develops is incredibly important to the agency, Griffin shared. The FAA is looking at electrification first, and that research will expand as more aircraft are certified and more data is gathered. 

“There are more policies and guidance that we have to provide at airports and off airports,” she added. “Being able to have strong communication with multiple vendors and coming up with consistency across everything that we’re doing is very important. That’s why this is going to be their focus in this new division.”

The company Eviation is developing an electric conventional take-off and landing (eCTOL) aircraft. President and CEO Gregory Davis commented on battery technology development, saying that the technology will evolve in step changes. He mentioned the progress that NASA has made to develop a solid-state battery for aviation, including demonstrating that solid-state batteries can power a vehicle at 500 watt-hours per kilogram.

Davis noted that it’s important for battery certification standards to be consistent worldwide. Having different rules for this technology in the U.S. versus Europe, for example, would set the entire industry back. Inconsistent regulations could also interfere with broader goals for sustainability in the aviation industry. “In order for sustainable aviation to have the biggest impact, we need to get our products to market,” he said.

Eviation’s eCTOL aircraft will carry up to nine passengers and will include a compact fly-by-wire system. Being able to take off and land conventionally is a huge advantage, Davis believes. “We can operate within the existing infrastructure, take off from airports, and fly in existing airspace the same as any conventional aircraft. We see some first-mover advantages. We don’t necessarily need to go through all of the special considerations [compared to] some of the advanced designs we’re seeing.”

Textron eAviation’s two businesses are electric aircraft developer Pipistrel and the eVTOL program, Nexus. During the panel at NBAA, Rob Scholl, President of Textron eAviation, emphasized the importance of consistent guidelines for AAM. Although there is a lot of excitement around the industry, he said, “we need to see the regulations develop around 800-volt systems, which no one has done and shown that it’s certifiable. There’s still a lot of challenges to overcome, and we need to partner with the FAA to continue to weigh out that pathway to promote safe vehicles.”

Developing regulations for these innovative aircraft will be a difficult task for regulatory agencies including the FAA, Scholl added. “North America is the most important business aviation and general aviation market in the world,” he believes. “Because of that, the U.S. is attracting most of the investment dollars and coming to the FAA with tremendous challenges.”

Members of the AAM industry have to coordinate with the FAA, he explained, “and support them to come up with realistic steps to make differences today.”

Existing infrastructure will actually be sufficient to support a lot of innovation, Scholl said. “The one place I think we need to focus investment and planning on is airspace integration. Unlocking the airspace will unlock opportunities to get more aircraft in the air.”

Noise levels have always been a concern in the aviation industry. As AAM operations are introduced, and in particular eVTOL flights, they are likely to start out by operating out of existing general aviation airports, believes Ben Tigner, CEO of eVTOL developer Overair. However, he said, there will be a desire to build infrastructure closer and closer to more densely populated areas, and noise concerns must be addressed before that can happen.

“The aviation industry has experienced trying to integrate helicopters into urban areas [and dealing with] concerns people have,” said Tigner. “In order for eVTOLs to succeed, they need to be extremely quiet.” 

It will be critical to keep these new kinds of aircraft as quiet as possible—not only to build community acceptance, but to enable more frequent operations.

Tom Muniz, COO at Archer Aviation—one of the top eVTOL developers in the U.S.—commented during the panel at NBAA on the topic of battery technology for AAM aircraft: “Batteries are definitely getting better and better every day. The batteries we have commercially available today are sufficient to serve a lot of really compelling missions. There’s not a need to wait for brand new technology; we’ll all get to market with our first product, and it’s going to be lowest performing product that we’ll ever introduce.” 

Muniz also remarked that Archer is working to develop a pragmatic vehicle for flights between 20 and 50 miles. In contrast, many people imagine that eVTOLs will be like the Jetsons’ futuristic flying cars. “Maybe that’s what this [industry] will end up looking like in 20 or 25 years,” he said, but Archer is leveraging today’s technology to build what Muniz refers to as “a slightly better helicopter” at a lower cost and with lower noise levels.

The FAA’s Acting Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, David Boulter, shared that artificial intelligence is one of the biggest challenges that comes along with certifying new types of AAM aircraft. “This is a new category,” he said, explaining that regulations for eVTOL aircraft will incorporate some components from conventional fixed-wing aircraft and from helicopters.

The post Panelists at NBAA Discuss Certification and Infrastructure for Advanced Air Mobility appeared first on Avionics International.

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New RNAV RNP Procedure Enables Safer Approaches and Landings at Eagle County Airport

A view of the RNAV RNP approach developed by Hughes Aerospace into the runway at Eagle County Airport. (Photo: Hughes Aerospace)

In August 2021, I participated in an inspection flight of a new approach procedure at one of the most challenging airports to land at in the U.S., Colorado’s Eagle County (KEGE) with Hughes Aerospace CEO Chris Baur in a TBM 850 equipped with Garmin avionics. Using the RNP and point-in-space landing capabilities of the aircraft’s advanced navigation systems, Hughes was able to deploy a new RNP AR approach into Eagle County that went live earlier this year.

Equipped with one runway measuring 9,000 feet, the approach to land at Eagle County is challenging because the mountainous terrain and nearby airports that surrounds it making the missed approach procedure challenging for even the most skilled professional pilots. In 2010 as the most famous example, Eagle was ranked as the world’s eighth most extreme airport in a special feature broadcasted by The History Channel.

The airport is situated within a valley inside the Rocky Mountains, with an elevation of more than 6,500 feet above sea level.

The cockpit of the Hughes Aerospace TBM 850.

Located 37 miles from Vail, the lone runway at Eagle County is surrounded by mountainous terrain with publicly available procedures that require pilots to use decision heights of more than 1,700 feet and three miles of visibility. Using RNAV RNP, Baur and Hughes Aerospace have established a new approach procedure with a decision height altitude of 282 feet and a half a mile of visibility.

“This approach has the lowest minimums of any published instrument procedure at Vail/Eagle County Airport. The other instrument procedures have significantly higher ceiling & visibility minimums, lack runway alignment, may position the aircraft closer to terrain, and have a challenging missed approach,” Baur told Avionics International.

Flying the approach in the TBM showed how much easier its descent angles and better avoidance of the terrain. The runway is situated within a valley area of the Rocky Mountains, where the mountainous terrain can range from 11-12,000 feet or more.

Pilots must fly over and through a gap in the mountains and slowly descend down into the valley where the lone runway sits to land at Eagle. Visibility can be quickly reduced by surprise snow storms or squalls. Lateral movement of the aircraft is also limited as you descend down into the valley because of the surrounding mountains and terrain.

Hughes Aerospace’s newly deployed RNAV (RNP) Q approach procedure to Runway 25 at Eagle County takes advantage of advanced navigation systems featured in modern cockpits, such as the Hughes TBM 850. It means smoother descent angles for pilots, allowing them to smoothly coast in between the mountains surrounding the downward glide slope into the runway, landing a few hundred over the runway center line.

According to reports on the use of the new approach several airline pilots on the first day of its becoming available through special FAA authorization, Baur said, it prevented several aircraft from diverting.

“Many aircraft today are equipped with contemporary avionics capable of supporting Performance Based Navigation (PBN). Extracting the value of these avionics is achieved through the extensive use of PBN, reducing pilot-controller workload, mitigating terrain & obstacles in a trajectory vs linear based lateral navigation as well as vertical navigation,” Baur adds.

Furthermore, the new approach features the strategic use of radius to fix legs to overfly the lowest possible terrain path from the initial approach fix to the runway. For RNP AR qualified pilots, it becomes a much smoother approach with shallower bank angles into the RF leg turns.

The RNAV RNP approach developed by Hughes Aerospace.

Lowering the landing minimums from decision height in the previously available approaches at KEGE are the clear star of the near approach though. Eagle County is located in the state that receives the fourth-highest amount of snowfall annually in the U.S., often causing lower ceilings enforced by air traffic control at the airport.

According to an article published by the Eagle County airport’s authority in February, the airport set monthly passenger record numbers in 2021, recording its highest number of enplanements from the airport’s lone runway since 2008. Some of the factors the airport attributes traffic growth to include the addition for summer service to Atlanta and Chicago, long with year-round service to Denver.

In 2022, the airport is experiencing continued growth in traffic. American Airlines, United and Delta Airlines conduct the most airline operations of all U.S. carriers to Eagle County, according to the article.

“The automation allows the pilots to focus on monitoring the performance, detecting and reacting to an undesired aircraft state immediately. This is in contrast to ‘being the performance’ potentially becoming task saturated while flying & navigating a legacy process,” Baur said.

The post New RNAV RNP Procedure Enables Safer Approaches and Landings at Eagle County Airport appeared first on Avionics International.

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Ecocopter and Airbus Explore Urban Air Mobility in Latin America

Ecocopter and Airbus signed a Memorandum of Understanding in September for the launch of urban air mobility operations in Latin America. (Photo: Ecocopter / Airbus)

Airbus signed a Memorandum of Understanding last month with helicopter operator Ecocopter to collaborate in launching urban air mobility services in Latin America. Ecocopter’s fleet is primarily made up of Airbus helicopters, which are used to perform missions such as medical evacuations, firefighting, and offshore transport.

Ecocopter and Airbus have a strong preexisting relationship. Their recent agreement involves exploring strategies for launching urban air mobility (UAM) operations in Latin America and in particular Chile, Peru, and Ecuador. “This partnership leverages Airbus’ expertise in innovative vertical flight technologies, and Ecocopter’s extensive operational history,” commented Balkiz Sarihan, Head of Partnerships & Strategy Execution for UAM at Airbus, in response to the announcement.

About a year ago. Airbus revealed the prototype for its CityAirbus NextGen, an electric take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The company is also leading the Air Mobility Initiative, announced in May, to evaluate the requirements of integrating eVTOL aircraft—and other advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles—into the airspace. Diehl Aerospace, the University of Stuttgart, Red Cross, Munich Airport, Telekom, and Droniq are some of the participants in this initiative.

(Photo: Ecocopter)

Ecocopter signed the agreement with Airbus to evaluate requirements for a UAM ecosystem in addition to use cases and launch cities for the CityAirbus NextGen. The team at Airbus “are in a position where they are not trying to sell anything yet; it is not a startup that needs LOIs or MOUs, they are on a different path,” explained Marcelo Rajchman, Ecocopter’s Corporate CEO, in an interview with Avionics International.

“It’s not easy to build an eVTOL or any new aircraft,” he continued. “You can build a demonstrator, but it’s not easy to get the certification or a production line. Airbus has been building its VTOL for many years through various initiatives and projects. We believe they will achieve a successful product.”

In the AAM space, the main focus is on the aircraft themselves, and the majority of investment in the industry has gone into OEMs. Not enough thought has gone into the larger ecosystem and making eVTOL flights economically viable, Rajchman believes.

“It would be hard to find someone better than [Ecocopter] as operators who really know the clients,” he said. The company has experience operating aircraft in Chile, Peru, and Ecuador seven days a week in all kinds of conditions. Flying eVTOLs in a city like New York or Chicago is one challenge, but a successful eVTOL company should be able to operate anywhere in the world—”especially in complicated environments,” he added.

(Photo: Ecocopter)

Ecocopter will be able to help Airbus understand their future customers and demand for eVTOL services in Latin America, explained Rajchman. “Ecocopter has ambitions to not only be an operator but to be more involved with maintenance centers and training centers,” he noted.

Some eVTOL developers plan to launch commercial operations in the next two years. Rajchman is somewhat skeptical of this timeline, but he expressed confidence that these aircraft will be flying within the next 8 years, and maybe sooner. “I’m not sure if it’s going to be as cheap as these OEMs are telling investors it will be,” he said.

Ecocopter is launching helicopter services in a fourth country in South America. For the helicopter industry, firefighting applications are continuing to grow, shared Rajchman. Ecocopter’s drone business is also growing exponentially with operations in Chile and plans to open offices in the U.S. and Brazil in the near future. He stated that the company will be launching a platform for cargo VTOL operations, similar to other B2C digital platforms, with assistance from Airbus. Ecocopter will start collecting data via this platform beginning in Chile and Peru.

The post Ecocopter and Airbus Explore Urban Air Mobility in Latin America appeared first on Avionics International.

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Vista Global Sees Record Increase in Demand for US Business Jet Flights in 3Q

A VistaJet Global 7500. (Photo: Vista Global)

 

“Private flight departments are driving demand in October across the region, activity is up 13% compared to last year, 23% above three years ago,” WINGX notes in its report.

The post Vista Global Sees Record Increase in Demand for US Business Jet Flights in 3Q appeared first on Avionics International.

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Chief Commercial Officer at Jaunt Talks eVTOL Development

A sub-scale model of Jaunt’s eVTOL was on display at the 2022 NBAA-BACE. (Photo: Jessica Reed)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Jaunt Air Mobility, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is building an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft as well as a hybrid-electric VTOL model. Jaunt has been a wholly owned subsidiary of The AIRO Group since March 2022. Jaunt’s focus is on electrifying advanced air mobility (AAM) operations to transport both people and cargo. The company’s design and manufacturing is located in Montreal, Canada.

Jaunt recently announced the formation of a new strategic partnership with South Korean startup MintAir. The partnership involves developing an AAM service in Korea, and MintAir signed a letter of intent to purchase as many as 40 eVTOL aircraft from its new partner.

The eVTOL developer started the Access Skyways alliance a couple of years ago to engage with experts in urban air mobility (UAM) infrastructure and to address future challenges in UAM. In February, the company Avports joined the Access Skyways alliance and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate with Jaunt in the integration of eVTOL vehicles into the existing ecosystem.

During last week’s NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), Simon Briceno, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Jaunt Air Mobility shared his thoughts with Avionics International on the company’s progress in developing their eVTOL, partnerships and collaborations, and insights into the AAM industry. Briceno is also SVP of Strategy & Business Development for AIRO. Check out our question-and-answer session with Jaunt’s CCO below.

Pictured above on the right is Simon Briceno, Jaunt’s Chief Commercial Officer. (Photo: Jaunt)

Avionics International: Can you share some of the latest updates from Jaunt?

Briceno: We merged with five other companies as part of The AIRO Group, our parent company, earlier this year. We merged with the intent to go public through an IPO, and we announced in August that we filed our S1 registration statement with the SEC here in the U.S. to list publicly at some point in the future. We’re going through that process to raise the capital that we need. 

We’ve also had an Air Force contract that ended in June with a focus on developing a high-speed VTOL aircraft that can fulfill high-speed missions with particular vertical take-off and landing and hovering requirements and certain payload requirements. We just finished Phase I. Phase II will be starting any time now [for the companies that are selected]. That’s important for us in terms of our relationship with the Air Force and AFWERX program. We’re working on the hybrid concept with the military in addition to our primary commercial program which is the all-electric aircraft.

Avionics International: In addition to the letter of intent from MintAir, what other LOIs has Jaunt signed?

Briceno: We’ve made progress in terms of securing some key customers throughout the year. We signed letters of intent for our aircraft, the Jaunt Journey, with a company in Brazil called Flapper Tecnologia that does on-demand operations using helicopters and business jets. They’ve been in operation in Brazil for many years. 

We signed another LOI with Vertiko Mobility, an operator in Montreal, specifically targeting the advanced air mobility space and setting up operations in and around Quebec. We’re working on a few others that we can’t share just yet.

Avionics International: What progress has Jaunt made towards certification?

Briceno: We have been working closely with the Canadian government for support. There have been discussions for at least a year and a half now. We are meeting all of the requirements for applying, and engaging with them in the various funds and programs that they have—both at the provincial and federal level—to get support for the program. A lot of that is contingent, of course, on raising the capital on our end. They kind of go hand in hand. All of that, hopefully, will converge here soon, and our program timeline is still the same. 

We intend to certify in 2027 and are working with Transport Canada for certification over the next several years. We’ll be starting our demonstrator aircraft development next year. Our target is 2024 for flight testing and demonstration with our pre-production full-scale piloted model.

The Jaunt Journey is designed to carry four passengers and is expected to have a top speed of 175 mph. (Photo: Jessica Reed)

Avionics International: What avionics systems will be onboard Jaunt’s eVTOL, and what will the pilot experience be like?

Briceno: We announced last year that we’re working with CAE for the development of several things—the main thing is our Systems Integration Lab. They have a ton of experience in developing engineering simulators and systems integration, and they’re going to be leading that program for Jaunt. 

In parallel, they’ve been able to develop technologies for pilot training; they’ve been doing a lot of VR work, and they’re progressing nicely in that area. They’re working with some other companies in the AAM space to develop the capabilities and technologies that will be needed to train pilots. They will ensure not only that we have the number of pilots that we’ll need to operate, but also that it is cost-effective for them to get training. Developing ground-based simulation and training devices really helps to get costs down. 

These aircraft are not your traditional aviation aircraft. They’re new technologies that have to be developed to replicate the behavior and the flight characteristics. All that work is ongoing with CAE, and we’re really happy with the progress they’re making. It will certainly ramp up once we get our demonstrator program up and running next year—they will be involved in a lot of that.

Avionics International: What do you see as the biggest challenges for eVTOL and other advanced air mobility aircraft?

Briceno: The challenges have remained relatively the same; they’ve only intensified, which is good, I think. If you look at it holistically, from an ecosystem standpoint, you have your aircraft challenges—technology development, new materials, new systems, fly-by-wire systems integration, pilot cabin, battery technology, and the ability to contain any failures with batteries. Additionally, certification is going to be extremely important for many of these aircraft. We’re fortunate to be able to have a certification basis that follows existing rotorcraft rules. We don’t see ourselves as having as many challenges in that area as some of the other players. The pilot shortage is another key challenge.

Once you start getting outside the aircraft—fortunately that’s something within the aircraft bubble that we can control with our suppliers and our experience certifying aircraft. One thing we have less control over, and have to devote more time and energy to, is informing the public about the value that this new transportation system and option will bring to them. There’s a perception from the public as to how noisy and disruptive helicopters are. There’s a lot of work to be done there. 

The other challenge or hurdle that we’ll need to address over time is infrastructure charging—being able to operate these aircraft at the tempo and utilization that they’re going to be operated at with all the right infrastructure technology in place. Those are our areas that we’re looking at today that need to be addressed immediately, and over the next few years, to be confident that we can operate. 

The post Chief Commercial Officer at Jaunt Talks eVTOL Development appeared first on Avionics International.

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PODCAST: Honeywell Aerospace VP Talks Aviation Sustainability and Improving Today’s Fleet with Tomorrow’s Technology

David Shilliday, Vice President & General Manager of Power Systems, Honeywell Aerospace, is the guest on this episode of the Connected Aviation Intelligence Podcast.

On this episode of the Connected Aviation Intelligence Podcast, David Shilliday, Vice President & General Manager of Power Systems, Honeywell Aerospace, joins to discuss the Phoenix, Arizona-based company’s vision for getting the most value available related to sustainability advancements with the current in-service global commercial airline fleet.

“The current post-COVID travel spike has reinforced traveler demand.  The aviation industry is pushing for disruptive solutions to improve airline profitability to recover from COVID as well as global initiatives to further technologies that support zero emissions in aviation,” according to Honeywell.

Shilliday provides perspective on how the current fleet can be operated more efficiently from air traffic management, flight planning fuel efficiency and sustainable aviation fuel perspectives.

This episode is sponsored by Honeywell Aerospace.

Listen to this episode below, or check it out on iTunes or Google Play. If you like the show, subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get new episodes as soon as they’re released.

The post PODCAST: Honeywell Aerospace VP Talks Aviation Sustainability and Improving Today’s Fleet with Tomorrow’s Technology appeared first on Avionics International.

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NBAA Session Highlights Ongoing ADS-B Privacy Concerns for Business Aviation Operators

(Photo: FreeFlight Systems)

Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast Out’s (ADS-B Out) ability to provide up-to-the-minute aircraft position and ownership information is still a concern for business and general aviation operators, according to a session that highlighted the issue during the 2022 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE).

The “Privacy in the ADS-B Era” education session at this year’s BACE featured a discussion about the issue some business and GA operators have with ADS-B that Avionics International has been covering for several years: Widely available, inexpensive ADS-B tracking equipment allows virtually anyone to track the flights of 1090 MHz ADS-B-equipped aircraft all over the world.

RELATED: 

• https://interactive.aviationtoday.com/what-is-the-answer-to-business-aviations-ads-b-privacy-concern/
• https://www.aviationtoday.com/2019/11/08/faas-new-ads-b-privacy-policy-means-business-aviation-operators/
• https://www.aviationtoday.com/2017/03/01/ads-b-complication-still-needs-solution/

“It’s not a surprise this is such a big topic in our industry today,” Doug Carr, NBAA’s senior vice president of international affairs, said in highlights of the session released by NBAA.

“This is about a four-decade ongoing challenge,” Carr adds.

Arguably the most famous example of the ADS-B privacy concerns of business aviation operators has been the coverage by several mainstream media outlets of a Twitter account that uses ADS-B to track the movements of the jet owned by Elon Musk. In February, The New York Times published an article covering the account managed by a college student that uses an ADS-B-powered bot that tracks the movement of Musk’s Gulfstream G650ER.

@ElonJet is able to do that, because the jet owned by Musk—like all other private and commercial jets—has a 24-bit International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) address.

That address is assigned to an aircraft’s registration number and has historically been broadcasted by Mode S transponders installed on air transport category aircraft. With the FAA and most other civil aviation regulators now mandating the use of ADS-B Out transponders compatible with the ADS-B surveillance systems they’re using, that info is now broadcasted across ADS-B networks and available to ground-based ADS-B receivers.

Each aircraft’s assigned ICAO code is based on its registration and a public algorithm that makes the position of the aircraft publicly available. With enough effort and research, that means the ownership associated with those aircraft is usually available or easily discovered by non-air traffic controllers that have ADS-B receivers or use flight tracking applications and websites.

That can be a concern for some corporate flight departments that want to keep the movements of their aircraft—and the individual or company that might operate it—private.

“Aviation enthusiasts were starting to see they could fill in the gaps with their own technology to create air traffic networks independent of the FAA,” Carr says. “Now in 2022, we have robust, non-FAA networks publishing real-time information about air traffic.”

According to NBAA, the following four tools help operators mitigate this, including the following:

• Using a trust or LLC for aircraft ownership
• Participating in the Limited Aircraft Display Data (LADD) program
• Using a third-party call sign
• Participating in the Privacy ICAO Aircraft Address (PIA) program

However, as noted by Jens Hennig, vice president of operations for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, those mitigations do not combine to provide a permanent fix.

“We can’t hide you forever,” Hennig said.

NBAA’s update on the ADS-B Privacy education session also notes that while in recent years these concerns have mainly been associated with U.S.-based operators, recent ICAO meetings have seen similar concerns expressed “on these security issues with many Gulf states bringing the discussion to the table.”

Check out the ADS-B privacy resources provided by NBAA here. The Federal Aviation Administration also has a web page dedicated to the issue.

The post NBAA Session Highlights Ongoing ADS-B Privacy Concerns for Business Aviation Operators appeared first on Avionics International.

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